Arthur Chin

[SunWuKong]

taken from Wikipedia:

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Major Arthur Chin (陳瑞鈿, 1913-10-23 - 1997-09-03) was a pilot and a World War II fighter ace.

Chin was born in Portland, Oregon to a Cantonese father and a Peruvian mother. Motivated by the Japanese invasion of China, Chin enrolled in flight school in 1932. Along with 15 other Chinese Americans, he left for China and joined the Guangdong (Cantonese) Provincial Air Force. After training in Munich Germany, he destroyed 9 enemy aircraft from 1937-1939. In 1939 his plane was hit by enemy fire and crashed. He parachuted to safety but was badly burned. Nevertheless, after several years of surgery he returned to China in 1944 to fly supplies over the Himalayas, a route known as the "Hump".

Chin is now recognized as America's first ace in World War II. A half-century after the war ended, the U.S. government recognized Chin as an American veteran by awarding him the Distinguished Flying Cross. About a month after Arthur Chin died, on 1997-10-04, he was immortalized at the Hall of Fame of the American Airpower Heritage Museum in Midland, Texas as the first American Ace, and an officially recognized Chinese American World War II hero.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Chin
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some interesting facts here. the first flying ace in the US for WW2 was Chinese American! also, i know that Chinese Americans demonstrated huge support for China and protested against Japanese invasion during WW2. undoubtably, some young Chinese American men probably went over to China or joined the US army to fight. but who were these 15 Chinese American pilots that joined the Cantonese Air Force?

[Woody]

Here are a couple more of unsung East Asian heros in WWII outside of China:

Sergeant: Jack Wong Sue (DCM)

A sergeant in the Elite Australian Z-Force and was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM).
He also opened the first retail store devoted to diving equipments in Western Australia.
Wong Sue became an instructor to the Australian SAS in jungle tactics.

Here are his links:
http://www.jackwongsue.com/index.htm

http://www.pacificwrecks.com/people/veterans/sue.html

Also;

Captain Harry Cheong/Dewar (UK)

A Yorkshire-born "Eurasian", Harry Cheong, had an exemplary army record during WWII. Including action in Burma for which he was mentioned in dispatches.
On leaving the army he changed his surname to get a job and has since lived as Harry Dewar.

Such name changes were common place. And have meant that much of the distinct Chinese history and heritage in Britain are difficult to trace, or indeed lost forever!

Incidentally; Leslie Charteris who wrote "The Saint/Simon Templer books" was half-Chinese!
Charteris was born "Leslie Charles Bowyer-Yin" to a Chinese father and an English mother.
His father was a wealthy and successful surgeon by the name of:
Dr. S. C. Yin.

[Seraphfire]

Arthur Chin had flight training in Germany, a Japanese ally? I presume the US schools would not accept him but Nazi Germany did?!

[Adaon]

Arthur Chin had flight training in Germany, a Japanese ally? I presume the US schools would not accept him but Nazi Germany did?!

"He was one of a group of 15 Americans of Chinese descent who were able to start flying in the US in the early 1930s, at Al Greenwood's flying school in Portland."

^---was taken from one of the links provided by Wiki, (http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/china_chin.htm/)

Read some more before getting your panties in a knot.

And Nazi Germany didn't start attacking the rest of Europe until later in 1939, after Japan had already invaded China.

I was actually somewhat surprised that that the Allies had allowed the Axis of WWI to keep their militaries such as they were. (Chin was trained by the Luftwaffe, according to some of the online readings.) At least after WWII, they took a bit more precautionary measures. But I'm not getting into that.

Awesome historical figure to find, Rad.

[SunWuKong]

Adaon, chill out. so he missed some bits of facts. what's the big deal?

[AngryABCGirl]

Arthur Chin had flight training in Germany, a Japanese ally? I presume the US schools would not accept him but Nazi Germany did?!

Actually one of Chiang-Kai Shek's sons was trained in the German military and actually was allowed lead a German army unit as its ceremonial leader.

There was actually a like of KMT and Nazi party cooperation pre-WWII. Supposedly that's why old KMT uniforms look like SS uniforms.

[SunWuKong]

also, Japan had been aggressive and imperialistic toward China literally decades before WW2 when Japan and Germany allied together.

[Gordman]

Some people are predestined to become historical.

[Dimeron]

Actually one of Chiang-Kai Shek's sons was trained in the German military and actually was allowed lead a German army unit as its ceremonial leader.

There was actually a like of KMT and Nazi party cooperation pre-WWII. Supposedly that's why old KMT uniforms look like SS uniforms.

As I recall, during the start of the Sino-China war Nazi Germany was actually one of the few western power that was friendly with Nationalist China, this is mostly due to the trade relationship German and China had prior to the war.

Later on, Hitler decided to ally with Japan instead and abandon China in the hopes that Japan would attack Russia and keeps Soviet Union busy and give Germany favorable trade, but neither of those happened, and what Japan did do was drag German into declaring war with United States.